Persian Letters

Montesquieu Margaret Mauldon and Edited by Andrew Kahn

A new paperback edition of a major classic of European literature--a witty, inventive satire that combines travel literature and the epistolary genre--written by a key Enlightenment figure

The first and only English translation from the new definitive edition (2004) of the original French text.

Features the most complete and comprehensive introductory essay in English, covering a wide range of topics, including the novel's fictional techniques and innovations; travel literature as a genre; historical context and Enlightenment ideas; Orientalism and other issues.

Includes full explanatory notes, a useful list of characters, and an invaluable appendix featuring excerpts from Montesquieu's most important sources

Persian Letters

Montesquieu Margaret Mauldon and Edited by Andrew Kahn

Description

Persian Letters is a classic of European literature by Baron de Montesquieu, the brilliant thinker who had a huge influence on the Enlightenment. Through the astute observations of his two fictional Persian travelers in Europe--Usbek and Rica--Montesquieu asks fundamental questions about human nature, the manners and flirtations of polite society, the structures of power, and the hypocrisy of religion-all in a witty, inventive satire that combines travel literature and the epistolary genre. Indeed, this pioneering epistolary novel appeared almost twenty years before Richardson's Pamela. This is the first English translation based on the new, definitive edition of the original French text, revealing this lively work as Montesquieu first intended. The book features an engaging and comprehensive introductory essay, covering a wide range of topics, including the novel's fictional techniques and innovations; travel literature as a genre; historical context and Enlightenment ideas; Orientalism; and other issues. The editor has included full explanatory notes, a useful list of characters, and an invaluable appendix featuring excerpts from Montesquieu's most important sources.

About the Series: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

Persian Letters

Montesquieu Margaret Mauldon and Edited by Andrew Kahn

Audio Guide

Two Persian travellers, Usbek and Rica, arrive in Paris just before the death of Louis XIV and in time to witness the hedonism and financial crash of the Regency.

In their letters home they report on visits to the theatre and scientific societies, and observe the manners and flirtations of polite society, the structures of power and the hypocrisy of religion.

Irony and bitter satire mark their comparison of East and West and their quest for understanding. Unsettling news from Persia concerning the female world of the harem intrudes on their new identities and provides a suspenseful plot of erotic jealousy and passion.

Click on the links below to listen to an audio guide to
Persian Letters by Andrew Kahn of St Edmund Hall, Oxford, who provided the introduction and notes for the new translation of the novel by Margaret Mauldon in Oxford World's Classics.

A world of scepticism

By the early eighteenth century two revolutionary theories - Newtonianism and Cartesianism - were fuelling radical thinking about the authority of the Church and the monarchy. Listen to the world Montesquieu was born into [2:03]

Inspiration and publication

Contemporary travellers' tales and The Thousand and One Nights are among the possible inspirations for PersianLetters. But Montesquieu also used the conceit of Persian travellers encountering French culture to illuminate concerns that interested him in his own society.

Many of the questions which Montesquieu ponders in Persian Letters remain topical today. These include questions of population control, the regulation of society, whether marriage is an outmoded institution and whether is it right to control our appetites.